The second game in the Shantae series, released for the Nintendo DSiWare in 2010, eight years after Shantae (2002), but in-universe, it follows Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution.
This time around, Risky Boots has her sights set on a magic lamp recently unearthed by Mimic. Despite failing to prevent its theft and getting fired as the town's guardian genie, Shantae vows to recover the magic seals on the lamp and prevent Risky from using it herself, but she will have to fight against the Barons of Sequin Land, a gang of thieves who also want the seals for themselves.
An enhanced release entitled Shantae: Risky's Revenge — Director's Cut was later released on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Wii U, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
This game contains examples of:
- Artifact of Doom: The Magic Lamp can enslave any genie and force them to become a classic, wish-granting genie to whoever holds the lamp, making the genie do anything they want. Shantae is only a half-Genie, so the lamp extracts said half, which Risky uses to try to kill her.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Storm Puffs. They have lots of attack power, but take a while to go off and need to be manually whipped into the right place to deal damage.
- Bag of Spilling: It's not explained where Shantae's equipment, items or health went between the first two games, but her lack of transformation dances is justified by her being out of practice.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Hypno Tower, home to spiders, druids, and
hard-hitting, hard-to-kill, resurrecting, bone-throwing skeletons. A lich named the Hypno Baron resides in this place and serves as its boss. - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ammo Baron, going by his portrayal in Pirate's Curse. In Risky's Revenge, he's The Unfought on account of being a pretty reasonable guy behind that boisterous attitude. In Pirate's Curse, he's a recurring antagonist who tries to conquer Scuttle Town by force with an army of tanks.
- Bittersweet Ending: Shantae saves the day but loses her powers in the process.
- Book Ends: Risky's Revenge begins and ends with a pan of the sky above Shantae's lighthouse.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Shantae questions how the Squid Baron returns by bringing up that she definitely saw him die at the end of the defeat animation when she beat him."And besides, didn't you die in a giant 'Stage Clear!' explosion?"
- Broken Bridge: Golems with picket signs, kindly requesting that you don't smash them, are scattered in various parts of the world, preventing Shantae from entering those areas until she learns the Elephant Dance.
- Brought Down to Normal: Shantae, after she beats the hell out of her magic-half in order to prevent Risky from using it. She doesn't get better until the end of Pirate's Curse.
- Bubble Gun: Shantae's Mermaid transformation can attack like this.
- But Thou Must!: At the end of Risky's Revenge, you're given the choice of whether or not to trade the magic seals for Uncle Mimic. Saying no makes Shantae announce that she doesn't have a choice, and she hands the seals over anyway.
- Chainmail Bikini: The Dancer's costume
◊ present in Risky's Revenge for iOS and Google Play is very much this, though the armour is mostly aesthetic. It's still skimpy enough compared to her regular outfit that it only provides half the defensive coverage while boasting twice as much magic. - Chekhov's Gun: Remember at the beginning of the game when it's indicated that Shantae did not take very good care of the egg Sky had tasked her with caring for? Well, later on, when a rotten egg is needed for the coffee you have to make for the Cadavers, guess where Sky gets it? Sky does not mind calling Shantae out on it, either.
- Chicken Walker: Risky's Steam Powered Oceanic Tinker Tub.
- Collection Sidequest: The Magic Jams, which are needed to buy the higher level upgrades from the Item Shop. You need to find all of the Magic Jams, buy all the upgrades, and get all the Heart Holders if you want the 100% Completion endings.
- Continuity Nod: Guess they never got around to fixing the bridge to Shantae's lighthouse that Risky shot full of holes in the first game.
- Cutscene Incompetence: Shantae just stands there and lets herself get shot by Risky's slow-moving cannonball, knocking her out and allowing Risky to escape after their first encounter.
- Enemy Without: The last boss is Shantae's magical genie-half.
- Evil Is Petty: Rottytops and her brothers kidnapped Mimic in exchange for cash, the chance to eat Shantae's brain and a lifetime supply of coffee, though that last bit is not as petty as it seems; zombies in this continuity can only retain their cognitive brain functions by drinking coffee. Still doesn't excuse Rotty selling out her best friend, though.
- Face–Heel Turn: Rottytops and her brothers, for a ridiculous reason (Shantae's brains and lifetime supply of coffee). They are visibly regretful when Risky refuses to pay up.
- Fireballs: Shantae can launch Fire Balls in front of her from her hands and continuously burn their targets until they die. The Spit Fire is an upgraded version of the attack that launches three fireballs Spread Shot style. Besides serving as the only long-range attacks in Shantae's arsenal, they're also used to burn away the occasional overgrown plant-life that blocks her path.
- Flavor Text: For key items, such as the Egg: "What a smelly egg!"
- Friendly Enemy: The Barons. The Squid Baron was fighting because its children were being held hostage. The Ammo Baron is never fought, and the Mayor says he'll just talk with him to reclaim the deed to the town. The third Baron may have been actively trying to warn and help Shantae.
- Having a Blast: The higher level Puff spells lets Shantae summon movable clouds that explode for a lot damage after a few seconds.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Enraged over Shantae's failure to stop the lamp heist, Mayor Scuttlebutt not only fires her from the guardian job, but starts up an aggressive public smear campaign against her. However, only he really seems to buy into it as the other people in Scuttle Town still seem to like her.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Risky captures Uncle Mimic and wagers his life for the three Magic Seals.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Sort of. Shantae's "Mr. Hyde" is essentially herself, her Genie-Half, but only at the end of the game where Risky rips it out of her and assumes control over it.
- Kill Enemies to Open: The second of the Interchangeable Anti Matter Keys in Squid Baron's location requires Shantae to defeat all the enemies in the previous room from the key's chest's room to unlock the doorway she came from when she was going to get the key.
- Kinky Roleplaying: After getting the second Magic Seal, the child NPC in the port layer of Scuttle Town will tell Shantae: "My mom dressed up as the pirate lady for dad. But I'm not allowed to say such things".
- Life Meter: One that is made of hearts at the top left of the screen.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Mimic tells Shantae they are going to do this once she finds the magic seals. Of course, considering what happens at the end of the game, that is easier said than done.
- The Lost Woods: Tangle Forest, located east of Scuttle Town. It's got several layers to it and is the location of the Zombie Wagon and Squid Baron's labyrinth.
- Man on Fire: Fire magic sets most enemies ablaze. Enemies on fire will continuously receive damage until they're dead.
- Mirror Boss: The final boss battle is against Shantae's genie half featuring all three of her transformations, which you're left to face with nothing but the items you brought with you.
- Mummy: First encountered in the Baron Desert, they begin to appear elsewhere once you advance far enough into the game.
- Must Have Caffeine: Rottytops and the other zombies keep their human intelligence with coffee. They offer to help Shantae access the third labyrinth if she manages to bring them some.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Implied. Rotty helps her brothers kidnap Uncle Mimic for Risky to use as a hostage, but after Risky reneges on her end of the bargain, she breaks down crying and runs off just as Shantae shows up.
- Naturally Huskless Coconuts: There are brown coconuts hanging from a tree right outside Shantae's Lighthouse.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermaids appear as enemies in Mermaid Cliffs. They can hide in puddles of water and turn into small fish when killed. Shantae herself can learn a belly dance that transforms her into a green-skinned mermaid, a pretty standard version for the most part, but can also shoot exploding bubbles.
- Palette Swap: The Scarecrows and Knights get one. Also Dark Mimic and Shantae's genie side.
- The Power of Friendship: Sky and Bolo decide to help Shantae in her job as the newfound Guardian-Human of Scuttle Town.
- Power-Up Magnet: You can buy a powerup from the store that auto-attracts money to you.
- Pun: Zombies communicate with each other via spiderwebs, in a manner resembling a message board or forum. Cue web, net, bug, and worm jokes.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The end for both parties. Shantae had to destroy her genie half, and is thus now entirely human. Meanwhile, Risky took the opportunity to flee. The beginning of Pirate's Curse reveals, however, that the remains of said genie half have merged with her Tinkerbats, who became superpowered and overthrew her.
- Rainbow Speak: Important items and innuendo are marked with different color in the dialogue. This has since been featured in subsequent games.
- Revenge of the Sequel: The story centers around Risky enacting revenge on Shantae for foiling her plans in the last game. She accomplishes this in the end by stealing her genie powers and forcing Shantae to destroy them.
- Self-Deprecation: The first game had an infamous part when both Sky and Mimic told you to go East to reach Mount Pointy and the Twilight Dungeon since going West to that place will make you hit an impassable wall. As every player who followed this found out, they had their directions backwards. Wayforward pokes fun at this error near the end of the Risky's Revenge sequel, which has Bolo confusing East with West while discussing the location of Risky's hideout, leading to the following exclamation.
- Sequel Hook: Risky's Revenge ends with Shantae being Brought Down to Normal.
Word of God says this is why they wanted to produce another title (Pirate's Curse). - Shifting Sand Land: The Baron Desert, home to Nagas, Sandstone Golems, and the Ammo Baron's army preparing for their takeover of Scuttle Town.
- Spread Shot: The Spit Fire, the second level fire magic that launches multiple Fireballs in a three-way spread in front of Shantae.
- Transforming Mecha: Risky's Steam Powered Oceanic Tinker Tub in Risky's Revenge, which can go from Cool Boat to Chicken Walker and back.
- Under the Sea: The underwater sections of Shantae's Lighthouse, Mermaid Cliff, and Seaside Retreat, which Shantae will need to scour with her Mermaid Form to find the three Golden Warp Squids and the entrance to the last dungeon. There's also the Sunken Cavern, an Unexpected Shmup Level where Mermaid Shantae must shoot down or avoid Tinkerbats with Scuba gear, killer fishes, and underwater mines.
- The Unfought:
- The Ammo Baron, since he turns out not to be a villain at all. He gains ownership of Scuttle Town without a fight, and doesn't do much other than rename it Ammo Town.
- Risky doesn't fight Shantae one-on-one this time.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can kill the forest chef's beloved pet dog for 100 gems, and unlike the Mooks you face, he will never respawn. As 100 gems is quite a lot of money, most speed runners encourage this (after all, speed runners are known for killing animals).
- Voice Grunting: Shantae, when she casts spells and takes damage. It has since been featured in subsequent games also.
- Weight and Switch: Uncle Mimic tells a story of how he looted some treasure by emptying the contents of his bowels onto the pressure plate.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Risky gets away with the Lamp no matter what, and your only reward for beating the first boss is not dying.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Shantae has to retrieve coffee in one quest. It turns out it's what keeps Rottytops and her brothers from becoming regular, slow and dumb zombies.
